What are Yearly Story Contests? How are the winners chosen?

Literotica Yearly Story Contests - also known as the “Literotica Readers Choice Awards” - take place in the spring of each year, for stories published in the previous year. For example, the winners of the 2019 Yearly Contests were chosen in the spring of 2020.

Yearly Contests recognize Literotica readers’ favorite stories and poems published in each category during a calendar year. On the 15th of every month, we tally up reader votes on stories published during the previous month. The story in each category with the best voting score (compared to all other stories published that month in that category) becomes eligible for the that year’s Literotica Yearly Story Contest.

Twelve stories in each category (one for each month) are nominated for the Yearly Contest. At the end of the year, we look at the current reader voting score for each of those twelve stories. The five highest rated stories in each category - out of the twelve that were previously nominated - become the yearly finalists in their category. Those five stories (in each category) move on to a final round or reader voting held each spring in the Literotica Awards & Contests Forum.

Literotica members cast their votes on the finalists to select the top story of the year in each category. Prizes for winning stories are announced at the time of the contest. Past prizes have included cash, gift certificates, and special high-quality limited edition writer’s gear.

Literotica has been holding yearly story contests since the 1990s. Most of the past year’s winners and nominees are available here or here or here.